Lotus Notes 8

The firm upgraded all our computers with the new… LOTUS NOTES 8!

^ Booo!!!  groan… yawn… back to work

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Project 500

I got an invite from ‘one-who-must-not-be-named’ sometime ago. The email was cryptic, it contained instructions to turn up at Cineleisure today at 4.30pm ‘OR ELSE’!

I usually don’t open emails from strangers much less read them… but something compelled me to… read it… can’t… resist!

Maybe it was something to do with the email mentioning the presence of a ‘secret celebrity’ so I stupidly went ahead.

So I arrived at Cineleisure, a drive of 20km away all for the promised hope of seeing whoever sent that email invite, a promise of an exciting time and came upon the realization that we’re the selected 500 top social-media users from Malaysia with the unlimited PR that comes along with lots of free time.

My trusted English dictionary (read: Wikipedia) failed me at describing what constitutes a social-media but I suppose it had something to do with all the subscriptions I had with Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, (ex) Friendster, Flickr, Delicious and thousand others that I don’t recall signing up for.

^ Picture of the slideshow held on briefing hall, Cathay Cineplex, Hall 6.

The event was supposedly called Project 500 and we’re the guinea pigs. Hannah Tan was involved (level of involvement unknown since she was definitely the emcee at the event). Two other developers are present at the event to details what was Project 500, how it’s supposed to tie up all the social-media (again, the word) into a single convenient and cute package for us.

The service is web based, able to link directly to all sorts of social-media (I’m addicted to the word). Most importantly it allows me to access Facebook directly from the site (bypassing the draconian firewall rules back in office).

The interface is simple and ‘cloudy’. Ajax is heavily used but it’s clean and neat so far.

I’m supposed to run through this till mid next year where it will officially launch to the general public. Looking forward to see how this baby will grow.

The long delayed Krabi post

So continuing my mini world tour here…

After Beijing, I headed further south to Krabi, Thailand.

After the bone chilling freeze in Mongolia and blizzard in Beijing, I’m taking this trip as a acclimatization program, slowly getting my body used to the warmer weather.

Coincidentally the Krabi trip was planned sometime in March this year due to a promotion from AirAsia. So it was just nice that we get to enjoy a little more before coming back to work.

^ That’s where we stayed for the duration of the trip. It came highly recommended and is clean and convenient to the main tourist belt. Highly recommended (now from me).

^ There are more cats here than Kuching. Probably because they are so loved that this cat has his own seat on the sofa (at the reception area). Tze Lun love it here ;)

^ Krabi! Trees, shades and shops. Shemales come out only at night so it’s still safe for kids.

 

^ Our first dinner place. Thinking we’d catch some nice Thai food but got con by the nice deco instead. Doesn’t taste nice and the price is expensive. Instead we got a better bargain further down the road – buffet dinner for only 250bath (RM25).

^ Just like Gurney drive, when evening comes, stalls spring up in place for finger food.

^ The sunset is dramatic here. Too bad I didn’t bring my camera so this is the best I can do ><

^ Maya Bay! According to the local guide, this is where Leonardo Di Caprio spent 3 months filming “The Beach”.

It’s a cozy little bay but too bad it has since been spoilt by commercialization (which I’m guilty of as well) :P

^ Voon Siew took this pic for us.

^ There are 2 ways to get to Maya Bay. Either by long tail (above) or by speed boat. We took the speed boat option but if a little adventure is preferred (such as capsizing or getting sunburned for the hours spent going back), the rickety boat above looks mighty nice.

^ So we’re the exception here. Long tails aplenty!

^ Water here in Krabi is not really that clear. If there’s a need to pick sides I’ll gladly pick Lang Tengah. Probably it’s due to the season, or we’re not even diving deep enough to encounter clear waters.

^ Phi Phi island is one of the many island that we hopped over. In terms of natural beauty (read: forest) it’s nice. But in terms of fun (read: shops), it’s a little behind Krabi. Also signs of over commercialization is everywhere.

^ This is what I mean. When you have too many bars on a strip of sand, and you need signboards to warn them not to dive when drunk (drunks are excellent readers), you have one too many bars.

^ Phi Phi is a tropical island, and with anything tropical, mangoes, pineapples and Bougainvillea comes to mind. If walking around is your fancy, Phi Phi is not a bad place to be. It’s just odd to come all the way to ‘walk’ rather than taking to the seas.

^ Next stop, Bamboo Island!

DON’T LAUGH! THERE’S NO GIRLS AROUND OK! Any old man had to do so you get a scale of the seas beyond.

Bamboo island in my opinion is better than Phi Phi. For my tastes, it’s exactly the right amount of facilities (benches, tables and toilets ONLY) and all natural sun, sea, and  sand. The waters are clear and the wind is fresh.

^ Adding to effect, it’s raining on the horizon so the sea really dazzles in the contrast sun. Also, the wind picked up so the waves are stronger and after a tiring swim, it’s just nice to sit on the beach and get beaten by the waves.

^ I don’t see a boat anchored to this rope. But it makes a nice picture. Just need to bump the white balance a little (regret why I didn’t bring a proper camera).

^ A little wonder why it’s called Bamboo island when there’s no Bamboo trees around. But there’s lots of trees providing shade and contrasts well with the white sandy beaches.

^ It was extremely tiring after all the island hopping and snorkeling. Choose to stay on dry land for a change. And since the tourist belt (where out hotel is) does not face a nice beach, we just took some time off taking pics on the beach.

^ Sook Teng joining in the fun!

^ Hit Krabi town for a visit. Unfortunately the place was a little deserted since it’s a Sunday and the shops are closed.

 

^ Interesting traffic light design. Monkeys carrying concrete blocks.

^ Temple under construction. Only the roof and the dragon is painted.

^ This is what happens when the sun is too bright. Girls hiding in the shade.

^ Krabi town is slightly similar to any towns in Malaysia. Only with more decoration and better walkways. I guess being a tourist hotspot and small in size it’s easier to develop and branch out in an organized manner, rather than retro fitting everything like in KL.

 

^ Most of the pharmaceuticals are manufactured in Thailand, so not surprisingly things are cheap here. Happened to found this little jewel for sale. SEXY motherPUCKER!

^ Saw this BSOD in the airport on the way back. Nothing to say.. it runs on Windows

^ Leaving Krabi after 4 days of R&R. Tried playing with the exposure out of boredom. Wondering why there must be a 2 hours check in time for International flights ><”

The long delayed Beijing Post

Feeling sheepish. Finally found the time to kill this off 2 weeks later.

Anyway as a continuation from my Mongolian post previously, I took off on a Saturday morning for Beijing. Travel time is 2 plus hours from Ulan Bator so with luck we got there around 2pm.

This trip was an afterthought. Initial plan was to take off from Mongolia on Sunday, catch a transit in Beijing and head home. However after some thought, me and my colleague decided 1) we can leave Mongolia earlier and 2) we can probably get some light travel done with a 2D1N trip.

 

When we reached it was a balmy afternoon in Beijing. Took a cab which costs us a total of 90RMB (about RM45) and travel time to the city is considerably faster than KLIA->KL at 30 minutes tops.

We can’t help but notice how clean the place was. I can hardly see a scrap of garbage on the streets and everything is well kept.

Oh yea, also notice the amount of CCTV everywhere.

We quickly dropped our bags at Beijing Oriental Peace Hotel (Dong Fang Zhi Jia – a couple of blocks from Wang Fu Jing) and went out sight seeing.

While walking around the place, I notice that cultural decorations is really strong in Beijing. Granted it’s the capital of China, nation of history. But I find it bordering on the extreme (in a good way) that almost every house and hotel is finely decorated in traditional motif. Take the house from picture above. Extrapolate the lions to every household and hotels and hawker stalls to get an idea.

We walked on, both of us first timers in Beijing. Thinking once we hit the city center we’ll get used to it. But there’s no getting used to the huge crowds that’s everywhere! For the first time we couldn’t find a place to sit down. Imagine that, 2 young tourist, walking for hours non-stop and couldn’t even find a place to rest and end up sitting on the stairs at entrances to shopping complexes (that’s also filled with people).

There’s queue’s at fast food joints, cashiers and even queues to toilets!

Wang Fu Jing is famed for it’s snacks. There’s alleys full of shops peddling their snacks such as live scorpions, noodles, candies, meatballs etc.

The live scorpions caught our eyes obviously. Originally it looked good, but upon seeing bowls of hot water with labels clearly stating it’s used to detoxify the scorpion stings we decided not to bet on it to ruin our short trip.

^ Pictured: The famous Hong Kong pissing shrimp balls!

 

Nightfall… and more shops sprung up along the streets. Here, officially sanctioned stalls serve local delicacies. Candies like “Bing Tang Wu Lou” (molasses coated fruits) are aplenty, as are dessert and soups.

Again, notice the clean streets. No kidding the place is clean!

 

We found a few churches nested among Beijing’s busy streets. But with anything Chinese, a fusion of crosses and mandarin poems dedicated to God blends together neatly.

Beijing’s other food attraction is their roasted Beijing duck. Unfortunately we didn’t have the chance to taste them as the restaurant (above) is packed to the brim. Reservations are full for the next 1 week and even then there’s no guarantee that a table is not shared. They could earn bigger bucks by bidding out the tables.

We walked to Tian Nan Men on our first night just to take in the night scene and to familiarize ourselves with the roads so we can reach there again bright and early tomorrow.

It’s 20 minutes away but the fresh night air and scenery makes it worthwhile. The phrase on the walls says “Long life to the Chinese citizens and their republic | Long life to the people of the world in unity”.

That’s the next day. SNOW! Yes no kidding!

God flipped a switch sometime last night and it went from Autumn to Winter in an instant.

^ That’s my colleague up there. Pictures taken with flash shows how strong the wind was, blowing it right at our face. But we had an important visit to make. A visit to Beijing is never complete without going in to the forbidden palace!

The insides are huge! Rumors that claim you will never finish walking through all the exhibits in a day is darn real. Due to lack of time we end up hopping from room to room, snapping pics at random and merely speeding past the borings bits. And 3 hours later we’re still not finished.

The good news is guided tours are available for cheap. If there’s a second time I’d definitely spend a couple of days here just to make sure I got the complete walkthrough ;)

PS: There’s also GPS enabled guides that talks while you walk around the place. Whenever you go near a point of interest it’ll start by itself! Nice!

^ Those are Mongolian characters on the right. Yuen dynasty is basically the Mongols era.

It was tiring walking non stop the whole morning with the snow and all but it was worth it. Managed to slot in shopping, trying out the local snacks, hitting the forbidden palace, enjoying the night scene, spending both autumn and winter in Beijing both within 2 days is priceless.

Note: Got lots of photos but they’re all in Facebook for now. Upload to Picasa is still in progress so have patience!